Checking the Waste: A Study in Conservation

by Mary Huston Gregory

It is so plainly the wise thing, then, to keep our rivers stocked with fish and to use them for food only, that it seems that this valuable resource has been more seriously and unnecessarily wasted than any other.

Fish are wasted on inland streams in the following ways: (1) By dynamiting. If a charge of dynamite be exploded on the bed of the river, great numbers of fish, killed by the shock, rise to the top of the water and can be taken. This practice was quite common at one time, but is now prohibited by law in several states.

(2) By seining. A seine or net is placed entirely across the stream, and all the fish which come down the stream are caught. In several states seining is not allowed at all. In others it is allowed only at certain seasons. And in still others the meshes of the seine must be large enough to allow all fish below a certain size to slip through.

(3) By catching with a hook, (angling) more fish than can be used or catching small fish and then throwing them away. This is a very common custom among sportsmen, but should be prohibited by law. From a certain small inland lake, it is said that during the entire season an average of five thousand fish a day is taken. These are almost all caught by summer residents, and it is unlikely that a large per cent. of them are eaten. In a few years the lake will be exhausted, and will cease to furnish fish for the people of the community, and there will, of course, be no more fishing for the sportsmen. Equal waste is going on all through the summer at every resort where good fishing is to be had. Some states have laws regulating the size of the fish that may be caught and the number that one person may take in one day, and all states should have such laws.

(4) The worst waste of our fish is caused by turning large quantities of sewage or refuse from factories into streams. All the fish for miles up and down a river are often destroyed in this way. As we have seen, this is only one of the bad results of allowing such refuse to drain into streams; every state should have strict laws prohibiting it.

From the waters of the New England states more than five hundred and twenty-eight millions of fish are taken each year. Here are the great cod, mackerel, and herring fisheries. From the Middle Atlantic states, the great region for oysters, lobsters and other sea food, come eight hundred and twenty million more; one hundred and six million come from the South Atlantic states; one hundred and thirteen million, including the much sought tarpon and red snappers, come from the Gulf states; two hundred and seventeen million are caught in the Pacific states, including the great salmon catches; ninety-six millions are taken from the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and one hundred and sixty-six millions, largely salmon, from Alaska. The Great Lakes, with their pickerel, and other fine fresh-water fish furnish one hundred and thirteen millions and the small inland waters at least five millions more.

When they are taken from the waters the 2,169,000,000 pounds of fish caught in the United States are worth $58,000,000, but by canning, salting, and other processes of preserving, the value is greatly increased.

Fortunately, there is a method of conserving our supply of fish and not only preventing it from growing less, but of greatly increasing the number and improving the quality. The United States government has a thoroughly well organized fish commission, and many states and counties and even private clubs carry on the same work, which is a general supervision of the fish supply.

The government maintains stations which are regularly engaged in hatching fish, keeping them until the greatest danger of their being destroyed is past, and then placing them in various streams all over the country. These fish are always of good food varieties, and are carefully selected to insure the kind best suited to the stream, as to whether it is warm or cold, deep or shallow, clear or muddy, fresh or salt, slow and placid, or swift and turbulent, for each kind of stream has certain varieties of fish that are especially adapted to it.

With all these things taken into account, stocking only with the best food varieties, if a state has laws which require that a stream be kept free from sewage and refuse, that no tiny fish be taken from the water, and that only a stated number can be taken in a day by a single person, hundreds of small streams, ponds and reservoirs all over the country may be made to yield food supplies for the entire community near by.